


Habitual

by orphan_account



Series: Naegi Makoto prevents the apocalypse by dating an emotionally stunted science experiment [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types
Genre: Asahina is there briefly, First Kiss, Kamukura Izuru Has Feelings, Long Hair, M/M, even if he doesn't realize what they are
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-09
Updated: 2020-01-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:48:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,543
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22189693
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Subtitle: Even perfect people need human touch.---“Kamukura…?” Naegi asks in a soft voice, body leaning and casting a shadow over him.He’s trying to see if he’s awake. Should he open his eyes? It’s clear what Naegi will do if he pretends to sleep. After all, this isn’t the first time Kamukura has done this, and the outcome is always the same. It should be unbearably boring. But even so… He decides not to open his eyes.After a few moments, Naegi’s hand hesitantly pets his head, fingers gently threading through the long, black strands.
Relationships: Kamukura Izuru/Naegi Makoto
Series: Naegi Makoto prevents the apocalypse by dating an emotionally stunted science experiment [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1602232
Comments: 28
Kudos: 363





	Habitual

**Author's Note:**

> Is this 3500 words of me projecting my desire to touch Kamukura's hair onto Naegi? Yes.
> 
> This is a slight AU, taking place at HPA before THH. Enjoy!

A light breeze passes over him, a strand of hair blowing across his face. The sensation stirs him briefly, a muted sensation of irritation rising inside of him, before a gentle hand smooths it aside and the irritating feeling vanishes.

The gentle hand tucks the wayward strand of hair down into the rest of the mass, behind his ear, fingers brushing the sensitive skin there. His eyes are closed, and he’s sure that his companion believes him to be asleep. He feels every last ounce of his immeasurable focus directed at the fleeting touches. It’s a wasteful thing to focus on, and not particularly interesting, but he does anyways.

He feels warm, for once. The sunlight is soothing, and the breeze is soft enough to not disrupt them. Once every few minutes the warmth fades ever so slightly when a cloud passes over them. There are students milling around, their conversations dimly filtering through his awareness, but he ignores them in favour of memorizing the steady, quiet breathing of his companion.

His companion seems to hesitate, a tiny wave of nervousness rolling through him. He can feel it in the way the muscles of the legs he’s resting his head on tense slightly.

“Kamukura…?” Naegi asks in a soft voice, body leaning and casting a shadow over him.

He’s trying to see if he’s awake. Should he open his eyes? It’s clear what Naegi will do if he pretends to sleep. After all, this isn’t the first time Kamukura has done this, and the outcome is always the same. It should be unbearably boring. But even so… He decides not to open his eyes.

After a few moments, Naegi’s hand hesitantly pets his head, fingers gently threading through the long, black strands.

Kamukura feels the barest flicker of annoyance at himself when he has to physically restrain himself from angling his head so that Naegi has better access to stroke his hair. If he does, the play act is over, and Naegi has never actively tried to touch him when Kamukura is ‘awake’. It’s annoying, but he forces himself to stay still and wait.

The touches are always soft at first. He knows Naegi is afraid of waking him, so he must be patient.

Naegi’s fingers comb through his long hair as far as he can reach, gently undoing the few tangles that he encounters, being delicate to avoid disturbing him.

Kamukura has been told most girls would be proud to have hair as soft as his - Enoshima has definitely mentioned it more than once - but he doesn’t really care for his looks. What would be the interest in caring for something so utterly boring? He had only begun caring for his hair when Naegi first commented on how visually appealing he found it.

* * *

_“Why do you keep looking at my hair?”_

_“It’s just… I’ve never seen a boy with such long hair before,” Naegi excuses himself with an edge of anxiety. He’s worried that he’s upset him. “Um. I didn’t mean to call you girly or anything!”_

_Kamukura finds no point in responding to such a useless observation._

_Naegi seems to fidget, eyes flickering here and there, before eventually landing on his hair again. He’s never bothered to care for it. His teachers never scolded him for ignoring it, or coached him on looks. He supposes they didn’t want him to focus on being the Ultimate Fashionista. And yet, Naegi is intrigued._

_“I think it looks pretty,” Naegi says. Then he jolts in place, “I-I-I mean! I think it looks handsome!”_

_Pretty? Handsome? What is the purpose of being either of those things?_

_… Does Naegi realize how little effort he puts in?_

_Perhaps he’ll request some products from his teachers. If Naegi is so invested, then he might reward the boy’s slightly interesting existence._

* * *

Why did he bother doing something so pointless? … He doesn’t know. He had simply felt like it.

The soothing action of the fingers combing through his hair continues uninterrupted for a few minutes.

Kamukura wonders, not for the first time, what Naegi’s face looks like when he does this. He can make assumptions. He has upward of a 95% chance of accurately predicting Naegi’s expression - he’s done enough sketching and studying of Naegi’s general expressions to feel confident in that.

His teachers had been confused when they saw the focus of his art talents, unsure of who the unassuming, plain boy he’d drawn a thousand times over had been. Kamukura had stayed quiet. None of them need to know who Naegi is.

He reminds himself that he’ll need to request more sketchbooks.

The other hand hesitantly rests on his cheek, cupping his face and thumb stroking slowly over the soft skin of his temple. The first time Naegi had been brave enough to touch his face, Kamukura had opened his eyes then, instincts realizing how vulnerable he was despite the extremely low possibility of Naegi doing him any damage, and it had been a long time before Naegi had touched his face after that. Kamukura had been almost irritated at that.

Now, though, he’s comfortable with the thumb rubbing softly over his skin. Sometimes the hand strokes down his face, caressing his cheek and fingers curling over his jaw with a feather light touch.

Naegi must feel a burst of confidence as Kamukura still doesn’t ‘awaken’, and the hand in his hair digs a little deeper, fingers massaging his scalp. Kamukura scolds himself internally when he feels a shiver down his spine. Naegi doesn’t seem to notice, doesn’t pull away, but even the smallest reaction is a mark against his self control.

Then Naegi quickly pulls his hands back, body going tense again. Did he realize after all?

“Yo, Naegi!” a boisterous voice shouts. It’s one of Naegi’s classmates.

Naegi’s legs jitter, slightly jostling Kamukura’s head. He can perfectly imagine the red flush of embarrassment creeping across Naegi’s face and the awkward, almost guilty way he’s trying to hold his hands. “H-Hi, Asahina.”

“Who’s this?” the girl asks. “And why… is he lying in your lap?”

“Um…” He’s probably scratching his cheek as he tries to explain. This isn’t the first classmate that’s seen them like this, and yet Naegi is taken aback every time. “This is my friend, Kamukura. Please be quiet. He’s sleeping...”

Kamukura scolds himself internally for overestimating Naegi’s awareness.

“Oh!” she says loudly. And then, more quietly, “ _Oh. Sorry!_ ”

“It’s fine. Did you need something?”

She and Naegi converse in quieter tones as she asks him advice on something, and Kamukura silently lays still, estimating the conversation lasting at least another two minutes. There’s even the slight possibility that Naegi will ‘wake’ him in order to assist the Ultimate Swimmer with whatever her task is. He feels the sensation of irritation build up again.

How boring.

It feels excruciatingly long for her to finish her explanation of her problem, and for Naegi to give his practical and yet completely predictable advice. More than once he’d considered simply getting up and leaving. And yet, the thought of missing out on more... _petting,_ for lack of a better word, was somehow more irritating of a thought than enduring this bland conversation.

But leave she does. It hadn’t been the outcome where she needs Naegi’s immediate assistance. That’s good.

Naegi sighs. “Thankfully she didn’t wake him up...”

Kamukura almost feels bad for how simple of an existence Naegi must lead. How little of the world can he even comprehend, when he’s so easily fooled? Still, he’s pleased when Naegi immediately resumes carding through his hair and stroking his cheek, so he won’t hold his lower status against him.

He wonders how long it will take for this to become boring to him. The thought isn’t exactly pleasant. This ritual they’d stumbled into has become something Kamukura almost… looked forward to. He’s never felt anything this strongly about anything else.

He’d met Naegi when he’d been wandering the grounds against his teachers’ requests, bored… So utterly bored. Looking for _anything_ to intrigue him. Then a small, dull looking boy had managed to trip on thin air in front of him while stepping out of the first floor of the school building and nearly topple them both over. Kamukura had grabbed the boy and moved them out of the way just before a cracking piece of the school’s facade had crashed down in the place they’d just been.

* * *

_The boy gapes at the fallen piece of the building, dust and pebbles raining down on them, and subconsciously grasping tightly around Kamukura’s waist for support._

_“Are you both alright?!” a voice shouts from the upper floor._

_The boy seems to realize what he’s doing and jumps back, face colouring. “A-Are you okay?”_

_Kamukura blinks slowly down at him._

_“... I’ll take that as a yes,” the dull looking boy frowns. Then he looks up at the window where the student had called out to them and waves them off. “Yeah, we’re okay!”_

_He didn’t expect that to happen. Kamukura feels the slightest stirring inside of him. “What is your talent?”_

_The boy looks a bit taken aback at his flat tone. “Uh, I’m the Ultimate Lucky student of my year.”_

_Luck? How can such a thing be considered a talent? … How can such a sequence of events be considered lucky? Stumbling into a stranger in the exact place where a rock will fall and crush whoever’s underneath? If it hadn’t been for Kamukura, he would have died._

_Is that the luck? That he’d stumbled into someone who would save him?_

_… Why did he bother saving him? That is a thought for Kamukura to inspect later._

_The boy squirms under his critical inspection. “Um… Sorry, I guess I should introduce myself. My name is Naegi Makoto of class 78.” When Kamukura doesn’t respond, Naegi awkwardly prompts, “What’s your name?”_

_“... Kamukura. You’re interesting.”_

_Naegi doesn’t seem to know how to take that._

* * *

After that, Kamukura had sought out Naegi more, easily evading his teachers who seemed to be off put by his sudden desire to mingle with the outside world. They’d reminded him every time to remember just how important he was compared to every other person. Hope. The Ultimate _Ultimate._

And yet, with all of his capacity, he still can’t grasp the entirety of Naegi’s Luck.

Like when a door comes off its hinges and nearly crushes him. How half of the vending machines Naegi uses take his money then refuse to give him the snack he requests. His tendency to trip into danger, only for it to then narrowly avoid him. Kamukura has intervened only once or twice, otherwise satisfied to see Luck in action.

Naegi also became a source of information for extremely common, normal things that his teachers had not taught him. Like manga, which he would request copies of and read. He naturally became perfectly able to copy the styles, and the plots became formulaic. The interest in them died as soon as it was born.

Or snacks, which he would taste - Naegi always shares the snacks that the other half of the vending machines gave him. He only needs one taste before being able to recreate them perfectly. He had felt only vague interest at first in seeing if Naegi could tell they were copies he’d made, but the boy never seems to notice. That game also quickly lost interest, but he still sometimes does it.

Naegi is extremely predictable, but the shy smile he gets every time he gives the smaller boy a gift is… something. It makes him feel… something.

He forces down another shiver as Naegi’s blunt nails dig through his hair and gently scratch his scalp. The other hand pets down over his neck and Kamukura fights down his reflex to push the hand away from such a tender, vital area. His fingers tangle in the soft hair at the base of his head, thumb circling the skin behind his ear.

His body feels warmer for some reason.

* * *

_Kamukura doesn’t understand human emotion. It’s so pointless. The world is so boring. There’s nothing worth feeling anything for. Fleeting interest, at most. But on campus, as he wanders behind Naegi, waiting for the burst of interest that comes from witnessing his luck, he sees many examples of human emotions. Students crying from a failed test. Students arguing. Students laughing. Students… laying together in the grass, smiling lovingly at one another._

_He stops and looks at the couple lounging. The girl’s head is in her partner’s lap, hair being stroked. The girl seems happy. Her partner seems happy. Why are they so happy? They’re not_ doing _anything._

_“Kamukura?”_

_He points at them, only for Naegi to grab his hand and pull it back down, face red with embarrassment._

_“Don’t point at people like that!” he scolds. “What about them, anyways?”_

_He frowns._

_Naegi looks over at them thoughtfully, brain clearly making an effort to connect Kamukura’s interest to those students. “Are you… wondering why it’s two girls?” he eventually concludes. “Because it’s rare to see two girls dating -”_

_“I don’t care about that.”_

_“Oh.” Naegi looks at the girls again. “Then I don’t really get it… Sorry.”_

_“What are they doing?”_

_Naegi looks incredulous at his question. “Huh? They’re both just sitting there, but you can see that. I mean, I guess they’re… enjoying the sun. Or something. Are you talking about the fact that one girl is laying down on the other one’s lap…?”_

_“Yes.”_

_Naegi tilts his head and smiles a little. “That’s just what couples do.”_

_“Why are they happy? They’re doing nothing. It looks boring. They’re not talking, or learning, or using their talents.”_

_“It’s not boring if it’s with the person they like!”_

_It’s not boring? Kamukura stares down at Naegi, a slight spark of interest lighting. He must investigate this strange behaviour. If it’s not boring, then he has to try it for himself. With one hand, he grabs Naegi’s arm and tugs him easily to the grassy area, stopping at the low stone wall fencing it in. He sits down and urges Naegi to lay down next to him._

_“W-Whoa, wait a second!” Naegi protests, futilely trying to pull his arm away. “I’m not going to do that!”_

_Kamukura frowns. He changes tactics. He easily picks Naegi up and sits him down on the stone partition instead, and lays down on the stone next to him, placing his head onto the smaller boy’s lap._

_“Kamukura!” Naegi whines, trying to hide his red face._

_He supposes it’s easier this way to see if it is boring or not. Like this, he can’t easily observe anything other than Naegi and the sky. He folds his hands over his stomach and wonders if Naegi will try to push him off, then discards the thought. Even if Naegi were to try - which is extremely unlikely - Kamukura will not allow himself to be moved._

_His hair is pooled across Naegi’s legs, tendrils spilling onto the other side of his lap._

_Naegi sighs heavily, body tense. “I know you were interested but you really didn’t have to go this far… I’m sure you could find a girl or something to do this with.”_

_Kamukura stares at him, waiting for the burst of interest. As expected, Naegi easily accepts this new situation, face still red and hands shoved into his hoodie’s pockets. His eyes flicker to Kamukura’s, then away, then to his hair, and away again._

_He feels disappointed. There’s nothing interesting about this after all. He shuts his eyes._

_“Kamukura? A-Are you tired?”_

_He is tired. It’s beginning to feel as though there’s truly nothing left in this world that can excite him. He learns everything he encounters immediately, and can predict everything else… Is Enoshima right? Are despair and chaos the only things he can pursue without feeling strangled by utter boredom?_

_“Um… If you’re tired, you should go back to your dorm…”_

_He ignores Naegi’s hesitant words, and they sit in silence for a while._

_“Did he really fall asleep on me…?” Naegi grumbles when nearly half an hour has gone by. Kamukura can feel his body tense and envisions him pulling his hands out of his pockets. “Kamukura?”_

_Kamukura’s body tenses slightly when he senses Naegi reaching towards him, but he doesn’t move. After a moment, the hand strokes some of his hair, touch so light that it’s hard to discern at first._

_“Wow, it’s softer than I thought…”_

_It… feels nice. The motion is repetitive and small, feather light, and it becomes easily predictable. And yet, Kamukura doesn’t find it annoying. He feels… not bored. Not irritated. It’s almost comforting. It’s a strange sensation building in his chest where he doesn’t think he should be feeling anything._

_That first day, Naegi lightly pets him until the bell for the last class rings and Kamukura is forced to ‘awaken’._

_Naegi’s red face and guilty posture after the fact almost amuse him._

* * *

After that, every time the weather was clear, Kamukura had forced Naegi to sit - be that on a bench, the stone partition, or even the ground - so that he could rest his head on his lap and wait for his hair to be caressed.

After a while, Naegi had actively begun to find more comfortable areas and sit down without being forced.

It’s been nearly three months, and Kamukura still hasn’t become bored.

 _“It’s not boring if it’s with the person they like!”_ , he’d said. ‘Like’... What does such a thing even mean? Kamukura doesn’t like anything very much. There’s no point to liking anything. He is perfect, and perfection does not require subjective opinions. And yet, all logic tells him that, if Naegi is right about why this activity does not bore him to death, then he must _like_ Naegi.

… Are they dating?

Kamukura mulls that thought over carefully. They spend most of Kamukura’s free time together. He actively thinks of Naegi despite his bland, pointless nature. He pursues talents that he finds exhaustively boring because Naegi would enjoy it. Those girls had been dating, and this hair petting ritual was an activity they’d been participating in.

And… Naegi makes him feel more things than anything else. Any _one_ else.

He opens his eyes abruptly and Naegi makes a shocked sound, pulling his hands away and spluttering apologies about waking him and touching him without permission.

“Are we dating?” Kamukura asks blandly, watching Naegi’s face go pale, then flush red.

“Wh… What…?”

Kamukura patiently repeats his question. “Are we dating?”

Naegi makes a choked sound. “I… don’t know? Are we? Is that something you… you want?”

Something that he wants? He hasn’t thought about that. “I think that I like you.”

Naegi goes even more red, looking to the side and scratching his cheek. “You _think?_ ”

“It is not something I have experience with.” That’s easier to admit than Kamukura had thought it might be, although he’s not exactly prideful. Simply speaking, things he does not have experience with generally take him under a few seconds to comprehend. This is a new situation that he cannot easily grasp, and Kamukura feels… excited.

“I - I like you too,” Naegi confesses, lips curling into that same shy smile he wears whenever Kamukura gives him a gift.

“Then we’re dating,” Kamukura concludes easily. He ignores Naegi’s spluttering again and relaxes, keeping his eyes open in order to watch Naegi’s expression. Time to see if his 95% accurate prediction will hit. “Keep touching my hair.”

He obeys, touch feather light like the first time, choppy and hesitant. As he does, he worries his bottom lip between his teeth as though he’s waiting to be scolded.

“You can do it like normal.”

He watches as Naegi covers his face instead. “You were awake the whole time?!”

“Yes.”

“... _Every_ time?”

“Yes.”

“Oh my god,” he squeaks. “Why didn’t you say anything?!”

“You don’t do it when you think I’m awake.” Kamukura thinks that his rationale is perfectly sensible. If he wants something and cannot get it unless he feigns sleep, then he will.

Naegi seems to accept that, nodding and slowly uncovering his face. “I guess… now that we’re d-dating, I can touch it whenever, right?”

Whenever...? That’s right. They don’t need this ritual anymore. Now he can have Naegi pet his hair whenever he wants. He feels a vague sense of excitement and nods.

“Do you… think I could also, um… k… k…” Naegi struggles to say.

Kamukura blinks. “Kiss me?”

Naegi’s expression scrunches up and he nods.

“That’s fine.”

He memorizes the bright, sweet smile, and the way Naegi’s face looks as he leans down and cautiously pecks him on the lips. It doesn’t feel like anything important, but he files away the sensation anyways. His lips aren’t soft, but they’re not chapped. Kamukura wonders how his feel. Should he begin skin care routines too…?

Naegi leans back up and there’s a new, unique emotion on his face. Kamukura will need to draw it later.

Then as requested, Naegi begins carding his fingers through Kamukura’s hair again, and he notes that he was indeed correct on Naegi’s expression. Soft eyes, shy smile, slightly reddened cheeks.

He _likes_ it. And something inside Kamukura tells him that he won’t get bored of it so easily.

**Author's Note:**

> I've entered rarepair hell. If you enjoyed, please leave a comment! It makes me feel like other people are actually enjoying my writing.


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